Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion

By Lee A. Kirkpatrick. 2004

753 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Health

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Citations in the corpus

Positive emotions as leading to religion and spirituality (2008, background): “People who have experienced insecurity in attachment to parents or to an adult partner tend to be attracted to religious and spiritual beliefs, practices (Kirkpatrick, 2005), and groups (Buxant & Saroglou, 2008; Buxant, Saroglou, Casalfiore, & Christians, 2007).”
“Speak, Lord, Your Servant Is Listening”: Religious Priming Activates Submissive Thoughts and Behaviors (2009, background): “One of these is the establishment and maintenance of hierarchies, figures of power, and asymmetric relationships (Kirkpatrick, 2005).”
Religion's role in prosocial behavior: Myth or reality? (2006, background): “Finally, from a sociobiological and evolutionary perspective, it is assumed that religion allows for a shift from altruism limited to natural kinship towards a cultural altruism extended to a larger cultural “kinship” (Batson, 1983) and for the creation of broad coalitions promoting ties of extended”
Religion, Social Networks, and Life Satisfaction (2010, background): “This view is echoed in recent works by psycholo- gists who argue that God can be considered a ‘‘secure attachment figure’’ and thus a part of social networks (e.g., Kirkpatrick 2004).”
On the Unique Psychological Import of the Human Awareness of Mortality: Theme and Variations (2006, methodology): “Wisman proposes that, in addition to the symbolic defenses posited by TMT, people cope with existential fears in simpler, nonsymbolic ways.”
Spirituality as an Irreducible Human Motivation and Process (2013, background): “More recently, Kirkpatrick (2005) argued that religion is an “evolutionary by-product” of systems that evolved to help people understand and deal with the world.”
Reports of My Death Anxiety Have Been Greatly Exaggerated: A Critique of Terror Management Theory from an Evolutionary Perspective (2006, methodology): “One of us (Kirkpatrick, 1999, 2004, in press) has argued, for example, that religion is not an adaptation per se but rather emerges as a collection of byproducts of numerous psychological systems evolved to solve mundane adaptive problems related to understanding the natural world (e.g., naïve…”
Attachment to God in Islamic Spirituality (2013, background): “Exploring the contribution and role of each dyadic partner is crucial when seeking to substantiate that a relationship entails an attachment bond, where one partner functions as the “stronger wiser other” (Kirkpatrick, 1992a, 2005).”
Boosting Attachment Security to Promote Mental Health, Prosocial Values, and Inter-Group Tolerance (2007, background): “, Klass, Silverman, & Nickman, 1996); and that many adults believe they can and do obtain protection and comfort from gods, angels, saints, and the spirits of deceased ancestors (e.g., Fraley & Shaver, 1999; Kirkpatrick, 2005).”
Prayer, God Imagery, and Symptoms of Psychopathology (2008, background): “God is regarded as an ideal attachment figure, who serves as a “haven of safety” during times of distress or discomfort, and a “secure base” for environmental exploration and learning efforts when times are not stressful (Ainsworth, Blehar, and Waters 1978; Hazan and Shaver 1987; Kirkpatrick 2004).”
Development, refinement, and psychometric properties of the Attitudes Toward God Scale (ATGS-9). (2010, background): “For many believers, the bond with God takes the form of an attachment relationship (e.g., Beck & McDonald, 2004; Kirkpatrick, 1998, 2004; Kirkpatrick & Shaver, 1990; Rowatt & Kirkpatrick, 2002) in which they see God as nurturing, protecting, and caring for them.”
What predicts religiosity? A multinational analysis of reproductive and cooperative morals (2013, neutral): “The reproductive religiosity model has its foundations in competitive reproductive strategies (Buss, 2002; Kirkpatrick, 2006; Kurzban, 2010; Kurzban, Dukes, & Weeden, 2010; McCullough, Carter, DeWall, & Corrales, 2012; Weeden, 2003; Weeden et al., 2008).”
Gods or rituals? Relational faith, spiritual discontent, and religious practices as predictors of hope and optimism (2008, background): “In the field of psychology, attachment theory also challenges an exclusive reliance on functional models of religious and spiritual experience by shifting focus to the substantive structure of individual views about the deity (Kirkpatrick, 2005).”
The development of compassionate engagement and action scales for self and others (2017, background): “1 As an aside it is interesting to note that there is also good evidence that people turn to religion to feel supported and cared for by compassionate others including “ a loving God ” [70].”